In A Dark Corner
by MoonsweptGirl
Summary: Jade never imagined that she would land in Hell's Kitchen trying to take down one of the biggest trades in the country. Her methods were simple, make the bad guys pay for all the hurt they've caused. When bodies are being found with no real proof of death, it starts to attract the attention of people she rather not meet. But she isn't a good guy and punishment is coming.
1. Chapter 1

She really had no business being up on the roof in the middle of the night. Any normal, sane person would already be in bed, deep in their dreams. She hadn't pretended to be a normal person in a very long time. Her soft soled boots barely made noise as she walked towards the edge. Nothing about Hell's Kitchen had ever been this quiet during the night. Not in the last couple of weeks since she had moved into the neighborhood. If it wasn't sightings about the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, then it was rumors that the Punisher wasn't dead and he was gunning down people just like always. Jade didn't really care about either of them. She had made sure to never leave any evidence behind that could possibly be followed back to her. The last thing she wanted was to have to deal with either of those two.

Over the ledge, Jade looked down at the semi-busy street. She wasn't the only one awake this late at night. Down the street, near a darkened alley a couple of guys hung out. They were casually smoking and having a good time. Up and down the street a couple of randoms walked along the sidewalk. Most on their way home while others headed towards work. None of them were the person she was looking for. Jade shivered as the night breeze crept through the thin barrier of her jacket. She still hadn't gone shopping for one that would actually be able to handle a north winter. Hell, she didn't even want to think about what she would do when snow began to fall. A small part of her hoped that bad guys hated the cold too and hibernated during the winter months.

She had never had good luck like that though.

"Watch where you're going buddy."

A commotion started down the street as a man stumbled away from one of the guys he had bumped into. The group moved as one as they straightened and looked as if they were about the start following him. The man half turned to them and seemed to mumble something as he held his arms up. Whatever he had said seemed to do its job because just as quickly, the group lost their interest in him. The man had turned the corner and seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. He stumbled as he continued to walk down the street, using the sides of the buildings to support himself. Anyone who passed him by probably assumed the man was drunk.

Jade watched him carefully, leaning her elbows against the ledge. The man was too alert to be drunk. From where she stood, she could see the way he kept looking up and down the street. This man was clearly trying to get away from something. He was favoring his right side and she guessed that someone had gotten to him just recently. Fortunately for him, he wasn't the man she was looking for. Jade kept her eyes on him until he got to the other end of the street and turned right. She raised her eyebrow at that. The Russian's (whatever was left of them) had recently taken up resident in one of the stores down that way. It could have been a coincident, or maybe the fools were trying to regroup.

That was one thing Jade had quickly learned about the people of Hell's Kitchen. It didn't matter how many times they got knocked down to the ground, for some inexplicable reason they always got back up. It was impressive, probably would have been more impressive if it weren't such assholes that got back up. Jade perked up, her thoughts forgotten as she spotted a hooded figure walking down the side of the street in which the building she stood on was. Now that was odd. On this side of the street, the light post seemed to have blown a fuse and had sent this little part of Hell's Kitchen into darkness. The person disappeared in and out of the light from the other side of the street, but that didn't matter. Jade had gotten used to seeing in the dark.

A shadow moving in darkness wasn't hard to spot if you knew what you were looking for, and Jade had all her attention on him.

For the last couple of weeks, like clockwork Jonas Compton would walk down this specific street at two in the morning. He always kept his face hidden by wearing the same black hoodie and dark blue jeans. He was a family man and he worked for some elusive business that made some product that Jade couldn't remember. Jonas worked in the marketing department and while they had been in Florida, he had kept a strict schedule. Day and night nothing changed for months. He went to work, he came home, and then on the weekends he would go somewhere with his wife and kids. It had nearly driven Jade insane.

Then one night while she had been parked outside his house about to fall asleep, a random black car had pulled. Jonas got in with a traveling bag and Jade had followed him to the airport. Together they got on a plane to New York and they had been here ever since. After all these month, Jade knew him better than anyone else. The apartment she was currently renting looked like a scene from a murder show and she was sure someone would call the cops on her if she ever let anyone in. Jonas' photos probably covered every inch of her living room.

Jade didn't have a problem admitting that her detailed investigating had probably turned into a dark obsession. It was the risk everyone took when being on a job for so long. But tonight all of it would end. The obsession that seemed to last a lifetime, the cold days and even colder nights in New York all together. If she was lucky, Jade would be on a plane in a couple of hours and heading back to Florida and hopefully hiding away for a couple of months. The pay from this job would make sure that she wouldn't have to worry about money for a while. First though, she had to finish the job.

Like always, Jonas made his way up the steps of the building Jade was on. He used a key to open the glass door and let himself in. Jade closed her eyes for a quick second and took a deep breath before she straightened and headed back towards the door that would take her downstairs. The building had been blacklisted for years. No one wanted anything to do with it. The banks couldn't sell it and the state refused to tear it down. It was a part of history apparently. Then the night her and Jonas made their way to New York, the building had been bought by someone using a fake name. Jade still hadn't been able to make the connection between Jonas and the purchase. The timing fit and it made sense, but something about that didn't feel right and Jade hadn't doubted her instincts yet.

The door slammed closed behind her, but she didn't pay it any mind. Besides her and Jonas, there's wasn't anyone else inside the building. Not that he would know that. Just a few hours ago, she had gone knocking on every single door and told everyone to evacuate. It was some sort of gas leak and that the owner had paid for all of them to get rooms at a motel a few streets away. Jade had used Jonas' company credit card to pay for it all. That would be a nasty surprise for sure. She took the stairs calmly, knowing that Jonas wouldn't be able to escape if he somehow got the feeling that something was wrong. She had rigged the front door to lock behind him. There was no way out except the roof or through a window.

The building only had three floors. The first floor was the reception area and held the mail slots for the apartments. There was a custodial closet that looked like it hadn't been used in years, the manager's office, and a bathroom. Nothing about the first floor seemed any different from other buildings. It was the apartments that held interesting things.

When Jade had fallen into this career path, she had known that she had to be ready to face the worst of the worst. Sometimes she thought she had already seen it. Then a new job would come along and show her that she really hadn't seen anything yet. Guns, drugs, hell, even photographs didn't faze her as much anymore. She hadn't expected videos though. They were really living in a world where everyone recorded everything. She had taken them and the photographs and had put them in a mailbox. Sometime tomorrow they would be delivered to the police and all hell would break loose.

"What the hell?" Jonas shouted, his voice echoing up the stairs to her.

Jade climbed down the last set and watched as he stepped out of an apartment and slammed the door shut behind him. Number 19. The place she had found most of the videos. She could only guess that he was either blackmailing someone or they all shared in some sort of sick pleasure together. Jade was willing to bet that it was a bit of both.

"You look rattled Jonas," Jade told him as she stopped at the bottom of the stairs, "Bad night?"

Jonas turned to face her, his hood was pushed back and Jade looked at the face she had become so familiar with. He looked like a normal guy; dirty blonde hair, average build, blue eyes. Nothing about him really stood out and maybe that was what made him so dangerous. Bad guys didn't look like they used to anymore. They adapted to the environment around them and hid in it easily.

"You," he accused her.

Jade widened her eyes and pointed at herself, 'me?' she silently mouthed the words.

"This is trespassing," he told her and gathered himself together, trying to appear bigger. Not that it was a hard thing to do. Jonas was easily pushing six feet tall, while Jade was 5ft 4" on her best days. "You don't think I haven't seen you following me around, huh? I'm sure the police would love to hear all about this."

"That's a fantastic idea Jonas," Jade told him as she trailed her hand along the wall, peeling the wallpaper, "why don't you go ahead and call them and they can come down here and question us on what's happening."

He didn't think she would call his bluff, Jade realized as she watched the color drain from his face. In her opinion, people like Jonas were some of the worst in their crimes, but turned into scared little rodents when they got caught.

"Who sent you?" he seemed to shrink in on himself, "Was it Juarez? Cuz I'm getting his package, I just need more time."

 _Who the hell was Juarez?_ Jade wanted to scream, "I don't work for Juarez." She walked closer to him and finally his eyes left her face and started paying attention to what really mattered. Her fingers dragged along the wall beside her and the wallpaper crumbled and the wood beneath started rotting away.

His eyes widened and he stumbled back into the door frame, "You're one of those freaks."

"I think they prefer mutants and no, I'm not one of them," Jade smiled.

If anyone heard his screams, no one had made to do anything about it as far as she could tell. Jade stepped out of the building a few moments later to a slightly less busy street. The group of guys were still hanging out at the other end, but none of them bothered to look her way. Screams in the night weren't something new in this part of the city. They never would be. Slipping her hands into her jacket pocket, she pulled out her gloves and slipped them on. In the past, she had always warn them when handling her jobs. Fingerprints were the easiest ways to find someone, until she realized that whatever she left behind wasn't capable of leaving any type of trace. The rotted wood would be so damaged that the cops wouldn't be able to lift anything from it.

Or the body for that matter.

As far as the world was concerned, Jade Vega didn't exist, simply because she couldn't leave any type of DNA behind. It had always been funny when she had to take drug test for old jobs or be fingerprinted when she got caught by cops. She would past the test with flying colors even if she had just finished smoking a joint and the cops would never get a hit on her even if it had been the twentieth time she had been brought in. They couldn't pull up her photos if her name was different and her prints never matched.

Jade walked down the street, ignoring the buzzing phone in her pocket. Probably the wife calling to see if the job had been done. She had met plenty of vengeful women before (they were her preferred clients), but Marie Compton took the cake. Most of her clients never wanted to know the gritty details of Jade's job. Most of them happy knowing that something was finally being done to help them, but Marie wanted her husband to suffer.

She would have to call her back in the morning, because while one part of the job was done the name Juarez kept echoing around her mind. If Jonas hadn't bought the building, could it have been Juarez? Was there something bigger going on than just one asshole? Jade would have to go through all her files again and see if she had missed something simply because she hadn't known there was something more she was supposed to be looking for.

The night had gotten even colder by the time Jade reached her apartment. She slipped inside, keeping her head down to avoid the camera seeing her face. Her apartment wasn't anything special, probably a little too large for just one person, but she liked having the space. It was on the third floor and the only way anyone could reach it was by taking the stairs. For some odd reason the elevator just wouldn't stop on this floor. It went to all other five floors just fine and when Jade had found out, she had smirked at what she called her continued tango with bad luck.

No one else lived on the floor either. Rent was definitely cheaper than the other apartments because of it, but it seemed no one really wanted to make the journey up and down every single day. Jade honestly didn't mind having the entire floor to herself. She came and went at such odd hours that it was just easier not having to explain to some nosey neighbor. Once inside, she locked the door behind her, making sure to turn the two locks and place the chain on the hook. The building had never had any problems in the past, but she wasn't about to tempt fate like that. Jade kicked off her boots, not caring where they landed. She would just be putting them on again in the morning now that she knew there was another job to do.


	2. Chapter 2

The TV droned on and on with commercials as the morning sun filled the apartment with light. Jade's apartment was the only one on the floor that faced towards the street and she had come to both love and hate it. The view was pretty enough and she never got tired of people watching on the moments when she actually was home, but the bad part was that anyone from high buildings could see the entirety of her living room. Not a thought she liked being reminded of. Now though, she sat crossed legged on her couch with a bowl of cereal in her hands as she waited for the news to come on.

She had slept in later than she would have liked and instead of feeling well rested, she felt as if she had been up for days. While she had fallen asleep the second her head had hit the pillow, she must have tossed and turned all night because she felt like she had been in a fight and lost. Jade brought the spoon filled with cereal up to her mouth and crunched loudly on them. The noise from the TV wasn't enough and she kept feeling like there was someone in her apartment. Terrible sleep always heightened her already high paranoia.

"Early this morning the body of Jonas Compton was found in what the police had originally thought was an abandoned building. When they discovered the body, no one had been home and no one heard a thing. Police speculated that it must have been a suicide when they received the call in the early morning hours until they examined Comptons body. Reports claim that it was as if he rotted away from the inside out. There were no sign of a break in or a struggle. Here on News 5, we've just learned that Compton paid for the people living in these apartments to stay in a hotel for the night. Apparently a gas leak had been reported and they were all told by a women working for the company that the owner was evacuating them until the problem was resolved. At this time lead detectives are refusing to comment on the situation but ask if anyone heard or saw anything suspicious last night to please call the tip line at the bottom of the screen."

Jade turned the TV off and put her empty bowl on the coffee table. She hadn't even been wearing a uniform when she had knocked on doors last night, but people were quick to believe what you told them as long as it sounded official enough. It surprised her that the report didn't say anything more about her or the gas company she supposedly work for. The police probably realized immediately that none of the other tenants could recall a uniform or even if she said her name, which she hadn't. Jade stretched her arms high over her head and felt something crack in her back. She winced and hoped that tonight wouldn't be a late night.

Getting up, she made her way over to the wall of the living room. Hundred of pictures were pinned to it as well as files. Yarn of different colors connected one thing to another and staring at it for too long always gave her a headache. At some point the lines wouldn't make sense anymore and she would be left with nothing but a colorful blob. The area between the back of her shoulders tingled and Jade tensed. Her damn paranoia was really through the roof. The smart thing to was was either cover the windows or bring down everything, but she liked the light and she didn't want to find a different way to organize.

In the time he had been in New York, Jonas hadn't talked to anyone of interest. There were waitresses at restaurants, the occasional barista, the newstand guy; no one really suspicious. Jade had pictures of every single person he had encountered and none of it made sense. She thought he had come to New York to let the storm he had caused at home blow over. He never contacted his family while he had been there, at least not from his phone. That didn't mean the bastard hadn't bought a prepaid one and paid with cash so no one would be able to track him.

Her eyes moved around the collage until she came to a picture of a pawn shop he had alway visited. Jade followed him inside once and watched as he sold designer shirts, jewelry, basically anything he had on him at the time. Jonas had needed the cash so he wouldn't leave a trail and she was sure he probably would have gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for the fact that she was always one step behind him. It was a start if any, Jade decided as she turned her back and headed to her bedroom. She pulled on a simple pair of leggings and threw on a long tunic over it. As she started heading towards the door she grabbed everything else she need. A scarf wrapped around her neck and her jacket was pulled on. Her boots slipped into her feet with well worn ease and she swung her messenger bag on. She felt around to make sure her camera was in there and then was out the door, locking it behind her.

With the sun rising higher in the sky, the day wasn't as cold as it had been last night. There was still a cool breeze, but now she looked like every other New Yorker in her light coverings rather than a tourist who couldn't handle 60 degree weather. That didn't stop her from cursing in her head for the first couple of blocks as her entire body shook and her teeth clacked against each other. Jade wasn't built for the cold no matter how much she loved it. The lunch hour kept the streets filled and people pushed and brushed against each other on the crowded sidewalks. The pawn shop wasn't far away, in the sense that she didn't have to hop on a bus or a subway which she was thankful for. Jade was used to being able to drive everywhere and while walking was kind of a novelty at the moment, she was slightly terrified that if she used public transport, she was going to get off at the wrong stop. Never mind the fact that she had a phone that would be able to lead her back to where she needed to go.

She blamed her paranoia mixed with irrational fear.

While the lunch rush kept the streets and neighboring restaurants filled, the pawn shop was basically empty except for a couple kids in one corner who were probably skipping class and the guy working behind the counter. Jade made her way in casually, glancing at a couple things on the shelves and in the cases. She'd been aware that all eyes had turned to her when she had walked in and it wasn't attention she wanted. It was a busy time of day and Jade knew she had taken a chance in hoping the shop would be empty. While it wasn't, she had been lucky enough that it was the same guy behind the counter since last time.

After pretending to look around for a couple minutes, she let a sheepish expression fall over her face as she walked towards the counter. She smiled shyly at the guy, knowing full well what he was thinking. He didn't try to hide the fact that he had been checking her out. Now that there was only a few feet between them, he let his eyes trail her down until they focused on her face again.

"What can I do for you sweetheart?"

Jade kept the smile on her face even as chills ran down her spine. It had always been a pet peeve of hers when strangers called her things like that. When she was younger she had thought it was a bit irrational of her. Then she got older and realized she didn't care and would snap back at a person with a deadly sweet smile. This time, she just placed her bag on the counter and pulled out her camera.

"I got this camera from my grandpa recently but I can't for the life of me figure out what kind it is and without that I can't find the film for it either," she said softly while playing with the straps of her bag nervously.

The guy, Paul, or so his name tag read nodded and pulled the camera towards him. He lifted it up and turned it this way and that as he examined it. While she kept her eyes on him, or rather the camera, she was really paying attention to the group of kids. They hadn't moved from the corner since she had come in. Either they were planning to steal something or were just being weird.

"It's definitely an old camera," Paul dragged her attention back to him. He put it back on the counter between them and leaned a little closer to her, "it looks like a Gammel in all honesty. Listen I might have some film that will work with it. We can test it out and see if anything develops. First ones on me,"

 _That's generous,_ Jade thought as she nodded, "Thank you so much. I really didn't know what I was going to do. He really loved that camera and I would hate if I could never use it."

"That's real sweet of you. You hardly see that now a days. Let me go grab the film from the back, give me a second okay?"

"Yeah, of course," Jade smiled at him.

Paul turned around and stepped through a door, leaving it open behind him. The kids took their chance and were rushing out of the store in record timing. Jade rolled her eyes and silently laughed. She hadn't been a saint herself while growing up. She hadn't been a bad kid either, but she remember shoplifting some make up with her friends and how completely terrified she had been that they would be caught. Before the door could slam shut behind them, someone caught it and stepped inside.

Jade wished that she could have pushed aside the sense of dread that filled her and gripped her chest like a fist. While she knew she had issues with her sense of paranoia, there was a reason why she never really did anything about it and it was because of moments like this. Everything in her was screaming for her to turn around and just catch a glimpse of whoever was behind her. It was part of that human fear of it's only a monster until you realize it wasn't. Jade didn't do that though. She could feel the person walking around the room and looking at a couple of things. Once she had felt his eyes on her, but only when he had walked in.

Jade knew enough to know when she was being stalked and they were good at what they did. She honestly couldn't believe she had let someone get so close. Hadn't she felt like someone had been watching her since the moment she'd woken up? Jade knew better and only rookies would make such a mistake. She had been doing this too damned long to be considered a rookie. With a casualness that she had to force her body into, Jade reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. She unlocked the screen and started swiping through her emails. Alot of it was nothing but junk mail and ads, but there were a couple from her client. _Shit,_ she had forgotten to call them. The stranger was getting closer to her and Jade decided there was no better time than the present. The phone barely got through the first ring before answered.

"Is it done, did you do it?" she was out of breath and spoke closely into the phone that Jade almost didn't understand her.

"Good afternoon Marie, hows Kelly doing?" Jade asked as she tapped her nails on the glass counter. _What the hell was taking Paul so long?_

There was a pause in the air as Marie seemed to take a moment to calm herself down, "she's being taken care of. We packed up everything and are about to get on the road to my parents house."

Jade groaned and pulled the phone away so Marie couldn't hear her. That was exactly what she told Marie not to do. Stay put, don't make any rash decisions until she told them to. It would only be a matter of time before the police showed up at their door if they hadn't already. Taking in a deep breath, Jade released it and brought the phone back up to her ear, "Have the police come knocking yet?"

"No. I haven't heard anything."

Jade thought that Marie sounded like she was moments away from a breakdown. Conspiring in the ending of someone usually did that to people. Though it did give Jade a pause. She was sure they had been running the story all morning long so either the cops were holding out on something by not contacting the next of kin or they had arrived early to the Compton house and see all the movers and thought it had been suspicious. The last thing Jade wanted to do was send Marie over the edge.

"They should be contacting you some time today. Make sure you tell them everything you know," Jade lied through her teeth as she put the camera back into her bag, "I'll be there as soon as I can."

She hung up the phone and tossed it in her bag before swinging it over her shoulder, "Excuse me sir, I'm so sorry to do this but I really have to go. Is there a chance I can come by tomorrow?"

Jade didn't want to give him time to answer as she started turning around and pushing a few strands of her behind her ear. She ran right into the person who had been behind her and mentally cursed herself because the guy was built like a freaking rock. There was nothing but hard muscle as he steadied her and she felt more than saw when he reached in her bag and swiped her phone.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly, keeping her face down.

She walked around him, letting him keep the phone. The second he tried to get it unlocked, the files would self destruct and the phone would erase everything. Jade was out the door just as Paul came back out and tried to call after her. There was no chance in hell she would be coming back to the pawn shop. At least not while it was opened. Jade had no problems about entering without permission and she was hoping that she would be able to find at least something in that back room. In the beginning, she hadn't thought it was too odd how often Jonas had come here. When someone need fast, legal cash pawn shops were the best way to go and most owners were willing to turn a blind eye and not take down any information that cops could find if they came looking. Jade had broken into one other pawn shop that hadn't had names in anything official, but she had found a beaten old notebook stashed in a loose ceiling tile that held everything she could ever want.

It took her walking down two blocks to realize that someone was following her. She turned left at the next light and caught the mans reflection in the window of a shop. Same guy. Up ahead a large crowd headed towards her of people dressed in suits and most likely on their way back to work. Once they surrounded her, she took off down the side of an alley. She dropped her bag, knowing it would only slow her down though she had to admit she was going to miss that camera. She had found it at some garage sale while she had been in Michigan once. The end of the alley was blocked off by a chained fence and she huffed out a laugh. Someone somewhere was having a field day if they were watching her. Behind her she could hear heavy footfalls pounding against the ground and Jade didn't have to look over her shoulder to know he was chasing her. Unfortunately for him, a fence had never stopped her before.

With a quick leap, she was half way up the fence and then swinging herself over to the other side. She didn't stop running even when her ankle protested and she knew she landed on in wrong. She was already around the corner and disappearing in the crowd before he even managed to scale the fence.


	3. Chapter 3

"We have reports that have been coming in all day about Jonas Compton. His wife and daughter have been informed about his death and it seems that the investigation has become slightly more complicated than the police had originally thought. Comptons body was found early this morning in a building that had recently been purchased by someone that does not exist. A tenant had forgot something after they had been told to evacuate by a gas leak and Compton paid for all of them to stay in a hotel. We know that no gas leak had ever been reported and police still don't know who the mysterious woman was that asked everyone to leave.

After a full autopsy, there wasn't an explainable reason as to how Compton died. All the report said was that he rotted from the inside out. Just hours after the investigation started, police received a box mailed to them containing photographs and video tapes exposing just what Compton was doing inside the building; weapons trading, illegal drug usage and sex trafficking. Which raises the question, do we have another vigilante on our hands?"

Jade honestly wouldn't consider herself a vigilante. She felt like that word was too close to hero and heroes didn't really take payment for completing a job. Not that she would consider herself a 'gun for hire' either. She tried not to worry too much about labels. The icepack on her ankle had definitely helped bring the swelling down and thankfully it didn't hurt as much anymore when she rolled it around, but she would have to be conscious of it when she returned to the pawnshop. For the last couple hours she had been hiding in stores, never staying in one too long before she went on her way. Now she was sitting on a very creaky chair in a laundromat where the owner had kindly given her an ice pack.

"You should go to the police," Mrs. Rivera told her from her spot behind a makeshift desk.

Jade tore her attention away from the TV and smiled at the woman. She had been nothing but nice since the moment Jade had walked in, but she could see the concern in the woman's eyes, "I rather not. I can handle myself."

"I'm just saying that it's not something you have to handle on your own," Mrs. Rivera shrugged and pretended to go back to reading her book.

Jade leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. She had made up some story about getting into a fight with her boyfriend and running away from him. In the process she had tripped and twisted her ankle. Mrs. Rivera bought the story in the fact that she believed Jade really had run away, but she kept looking her over as if looking for some kind of proof that the fight had gotten physical. It wouldn't be long before she'd have to get up and moving again. Hopefully the man couldn't pick up on her trail, especially since she hadn't gone back to her apartment since the encounter earlier in the day. But now the sun was starting to set and her stomach was growling. She hadn't eaten anything else except her sad bowl of cereal and she could go for just about anything right now.

The only problem was that her cash had been inside the bag and her credit cards were all back at the apartment. She only had two options; either go hungry and make her way to the pawn shop, or risk encountering the stalker at her apartment. Neither sounded like good idea, but she had lasted longer without food before. Jade would hopefully be in and out of the pawn shop after taking a quick peak, just to get the layout. Hopefully she could 'borrow' some cash from Paul that would pay for a motel room for the night until she figured something out.

Jade must have fallen asleep at some point because suddenly Mrs. Rivera's hand was on her shoulder, shaking her awake.

"Come on mija, if I let you sleep here then everybody is gonna want to sleep here," the woman said.

Jade blinked warily and groaned as she straightened in her chair. There was no reason why these lights had to be this bright. Quickly looking outside, she saw that the sun had long since set and it was nothing but dark streets, "what time is it?"

"Time for me to be closing. Its ten."

Mrs. Rivera went about turning off the lights and grabbing her purse from the back room. Jade stood up and heard more than felt when her back crack. _Oh god, I'm getting old,_ she thought as she followed Mrs. Rivera out the door. She waited until the woman locked the door behind her before saying goodbye.

While walking down the street, Jade stretched her arms out and high knowing that she probably was drawing some weird looks from the crowd, but every pop and crack her body made was worth it. She wasn't really dressed for the occasion of breaking and entering, but what the hell? She'd certainly done stranger things. Jade tugged her jacket tight around herself hoping that would somehow keep the wind from biting through. It didn't really work. She kept her head down as she traversed the streets. It was a friday night and there were more people out than last night. It certainly made it easier for her to blend in.

Jade was counting her fortunes that the pawn shop was a good distance away from the building where Compton had been found. The last thing she wanted was for a tenant to recognize her. While they still could, it was less likely this far away and she counted on the night and for them to second guess themselves on the off chance that she did cross paths with one of them.

The front of the pawn shop was closed up with a metal door that came down to the ground, not letting anyone out on the streets be able to look in. Jade would be able to rummage around without having to worry about someone spying her. She kept walking around the side of the building and to the back where she found a fire escape that led up to the roof. Hopefully there was a door or even a vent that she would be able to crawl in through. Once she grabbed on to the freezing metal ladder, she realized just how ill prepared she really was. The guy from earlier really had spooked her and she felt like she was doing everything wrong. Normally she would never second guess herself like this.

An easy breaking and entering never had her worrying so much. In the past, Jade had been in and out of places so quickly that no one could ever guess how she had done it. As she stepped onto the roof and nearly slipped on some pebbles, it felt like her heart had almost jumped up her throat. She bent over and grasped her chest, coming to the conclusion that New York might want her to leave. She hadn't had this much trouble even when she had been in San Francisco a year ago and back then she had a human eating alien to worry about.

The thought of the Punisher or Daredevil shouldn't have scared her this much. Hell, even with the Avengers close by should have had her more worried. It had to have been the news coverage. Everyone made those two sound like they had literally crawled out of hell with no problem. Straightening, Jade tried to push the thoughts of monstrous men out of her mind. She was a small time, all things considered. There were bigger, badder people on these streets that breaking into a sleazy pawnshop shouldn't be on anyone's radar.

God, she hated when she was wrong.

Jade swung down, swiping her leg out and catching the guy off guard. He fell hard on the ground with a grunt. She stood back up and was half way over the ledge and back on the fire escape when hands grabbed her around the waist and yanked her back against a hard chest. She screamed, throwing her elbow back into his ribs, but he only tightened his grip and she felt like she just shattered her bone. The muscle man. It could only be him. Jade thrashed and tried to reach in her jacket pocket to pull out her blade but his other hand clapped onto her wrist and dragged it behind her back. She screamed again hoping someone would hear and call the cops.

"Hey!" He raised his voice to be heard over her screaming, "I just wanna talk, okay."

Jade brought her foot down on top of his but the asshole barely even flinched, "you have a funny way of talking."

She was breathless from the struggle, his hold, and her racing heart ,because of course he would find her here. Every criminal came back to their mark at some point. Jade hadn't even bothered to wait a full 24 hours before returning. She could make him let her go if she wanted to, but she didn't want to risk hurting him because so far, he hadn't hurt her. In the next moment she did something that was either really stupid or only slightly stupid, she stopped struggling. Jade let her body relax and took a deep breath of the cold air. She didn't like to say that she had trust issues (she did, she just didn't like to say it) but given her line of work, she didn't think the best of people. So really, this guy should appreciate just how much this was killing her.

The second he let her go, she swung around to see that he had taken a few steps back and had his arms raised to try and show her he meant no harm. Yeah, right. The guy was freaking Goliath compared to her and looked intimidating no matter how hard he tried not to seem it. Jade eyed him warily, she hadn't been able to get a good look at him earlier but now that there was only a few feet between them her heart started racing before her mind could fully process why. It wasn't the bruised face or the closed cropped hair that gave him away. Not even the air around him that screamed soldier. In all honesty, he looked like a normal guy.

Until she saw the white skull peeking through his jacket.

"Oh god," she muttered and tried to take a step back, but she was at the very edge of the roof. Jade felt like she was going to throw up looking at that skull.

"Look, I aint gonna hurt you kid, I just wanna ask you some questions," he said, lowering his hands and sticking them inside the pockets of his jacket. He took a step back at the same time as if to give her a little more breathing room.

Jade could be half across the county and that still wouldnt be enough space. She narrowed her eyes at him because when in doubt, act tough right? "What about?"

"Compton."

"Who?" Jade was quick to ask, her brows pulling together in confusion as if she'd never heard the name before. She didn't want to admit just how dry her mouth was at the moment.

"Nah see that's not how we're gonna do this. I'm gonna ask you real easy questions and you're not gonna lie to me," he told her plainly.

Jade didn't think he was a man built on patience. The drop from the roof to the ground wasn't terrible. She had jumped off higher places and survived them just fine, but she didn't know if she was willing to do it on her ankle. There wouldn't be any point in jumping if she wouldn't be able to run away.

"I don't know who that is," she told him.

She didn't want to admit that she was purposely trying to push his buttons, but she wanted to know his limits. It seemed however that Frank Castle wasn't rising to take her bait.

"You were real slick in how you got everyone to empty out of the building. None of them could even remember your face really, but you messed up when you let the group of guys keep hanging out at the end of the street."

Jade didn't let the aggravation show on her face. Of course she hadn't paid them any mind. She didn't think anyone would bother going around asking the small time gangs if they had seen anything. That and she had been hoping they wouldn't talk because no one ever liked talking when the cops came around asking questions, but the man in front of her sure as hell was more intimidating than the police. At least with the police, you knew you had some chance of surviving, but she had never heard of anyone living if the Punisher came for them. Which begged the question, why was she still breathing?

"Yeah, okay I can see where I slacked a bit," she told him with a shrug, "but most of the time guys like that wouldn't talk for a price."

Again he didn't take her bait and she wondered if that confirmed the guys were dead. But she had also heard the rumors beyond what the news reported about Castle. Everyone he went after was for a reason and he didn't kill the innocent. Jade wondered just where she stood on his line of innocent or guilty.

"I really don't know what to tell you. Someone contacted me and told me Compton was shady and that I had to help the people in that building. So I got them out. Shit, I woke up this morning to the news and I freaked. I didn't know someone was trying to kill him," her voice came out wobbly and she didn't know if it was because she was trying to force it, or because her stomach was starting to cramp in demand of food.

"So you just happen to be trying to break in to a place Compton frequented?" he raised a dark brow at her.

Jade hesitated for too long. Something wasn't right. She could still feel the cool breeze blowing, but she was hot. Sweat was starting to form on her forehead and her throat kept getting dryer and dryer. The next moment she stumbled and would have fallen hard on the ground if Frank hadn't moved and caught her.

"It's not lethal," Frank reassured her, "I just need some answers."

Jade had never begun a panic attack when she was moments from passing out, but she could imagine that this was kind of how dying felt like.


End file.
